Blogs give Obama heat for Wis. tweet

Conservatives in blogland beamed with confidence in the lead-up to the Wisconsin recall vote on Tuesday, making fun of President Barack Obama for his tepid support of Democrat Tom Barrett - illustrated by a mere tweet, and no on-the-ground campaigning during the recall election.

“Obama has now decisively intervened in the race, with a tweet… He didn’t even use all 140 characters,” mocked Mickey Kaus at the Daily Caller. “It’s an effort so self-protective and wussy it may come to stand for the President’s ineffectuality. Next he’ll tweet his opposition to Assad.”

“Tweets signed “bo” are ones that are supposed to be directly from him. This is the equivalent of phoning it in,” wrote a blogger at Pirate’s Cove.

“President Barack Obama is leading from behind on today’s recall election in Wisconsin,” concurred Nick Gillespie at the libertarian Reason magazine. “What does it mean that Obama was willing to do more to help Chicago win the Olympic Games than he is to lend a hand in the hotly contested Badger State?”

On the other side, liberal bloggers expressed disappointment that the president had not more aggressively engaged with the Wisconsin recall campaign.

“To a lot of us outside the Beltway, we’re very disappointed that the DNC declined to engage, and that the sole peep from our president was a single tweet last night,” wrote DocJess at DemocraticConventionWatch.

Meanwhile, conservatives surmised that the president’s lack of involvement had to do with Barrett’s likely defeat Tuesday.

“Of course, the answer is Obama doesn’t need to be associated with more failure & repudiation,” wrote conservative blogger Ace of Spades.

“Obama was so determined to avoid damage to his “brand” that he didn’t show up in Wisconsin to rally the troops in what’s likely a losing cause,” added William Kristol at the Weekly Standard.

Barrett faces a tough election Tuesday as varying polls show Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) with a lead between two and seven percentage points.